Tulip – Iwasaki Kan’en, 1828-1844
€450
Dutch Tulip – Woodblock print in colour on two sheets from Iwasaki Kan’en‘s “Honzo Zufu” [Illustrated Guide to Plants], published between 1828-1844. Size: 21.5 x 29 cm.
Iwasaki Kan’en (1786-1842), a botanist who sketched 2,000 kinds of plants from all over Japan, was dissatisfied with the crude illustrations in previous herbal books, and spent 20 years compiling this book, Japan’s first fully-fledged coloured plant encyclopedia.
For this depiction of a tulip, Iwasaki Kan’en drew inspiration from an engraving in Phytanthoza Iconographia, a 1737 botanical atlas by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann. He likely obtained access to it through the Dutch, who, at the beginning of the 19th century, were the only Europeans allowed to enter Japan.
Price: Euro 450,-
